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Dallas County GOP questions Democrats’ use of sheriff’s deputies to police early voting

UPDATE: Sheriff’s Department says two people called their agency to report election law violations.

Bear in mind, silliness happens when a major election is only days away. But here’s a couple of questions:

Were Republicans trying to buy votes with hot dogs this Saturday at a Mesquite polling place?

And are Democratic lawyers and activists using Democratic Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s deputies to crack down on Republican activities at the polls during early voting?

Those are questions being posed by county Democrats and Republicans. The answers are, as of yet, elusive.

Go to the jump to see what we know.
Republicans were handing out free hot dogs to people at Dunford Recreation Center, an early voting location in Mesquite, on Saturday afternoon. Mike Anderson and his Democratic opponent, Robert Miklos, were both there campaigning for the Texas House District 101 seat.

Democratic lawyers alleged that Republicans were giving the hot dogs only to voters in an attempt to buy their votes, which would be an election law violation. (We’re not sure whether they were also given free mustard and ketchup packets).

Republicans said they were giving them to everyone.

Shortly afterward, several Dallas County sheriff’s deputies showed up to ask questions and left without incident. The question is: who called them? And why wasn’t the Mesquite Police Department called since the alleged infraction occurred in their city?

(Sheriff’s deputies are responsible for answering calls in unincorporated areas)

Kirk McPike, the sheriff’s campaign manager, said a Democratic activist called him on Saturday to report the alleged hot dog impropriety. McPike happened to be out campaigning with the sheriff.

Valdez, he said, called her dispatch center to ask if there was a number to call for this sort of thing. She was told no, he said. So McPike said he gave the Democratic activist the number for the county elections office.

On election day, the elections office uses sheriff’s deputies for security purposes to monitor problems at the polls. But not during early voting, explains Bruce Sherbet, the county’s elections administrator.

Sherbet said the hot dog giveaway occurred outside the 100-foot distance marker and therefore was not a matter for him to police.

“My jurisdiction ends at the 100-foot marker,” he said.

He said no one from his office called the Sheriff’s Department.

UPDATE: Here’s what Kim Leach, the sheriff’s spokeswoman, told us this morning:

“I’ve had an opportunity to review the 911 calls that came in. At 1:03pm a call came in via cell phone from a female identifying herself as a friend of the democratic party and said there was a ‘felony election law violation’ occurring at Dunford Recreation center. The caller asked for sheriff’s deputies to come out to handle it. About 20 minutes later a call came in from a female with the Dallas County Elections Department saying, ‘they were told to call the sheriff’s department for any early election violations problems’ and that we needed to check out a possible election violation at Dunford Recreation center.”

Leach said she’s not sure how the two callers, who she declined to identify, got through to the sheriff’s dispatch center.

Jonathan Neerman, the county GOP chairman, said it’s interesting that the Democratic lawyer called the sheriff’s campaign manager and then all of a sudden three deputies show up.

“The whole thing sounds suspicious,” he said. “That’s odd to me.”

He said his concern is whether or not “sheriff’s deputies are being used as a first line of defense for the Democratic lawyers at the polls.”

Kim Leach, the sheriff’s spokeswoman, said she’s tried to find out how the Sheriff’s Department dispatch center received the call and from whom. As of today, she said she’s not been able to find out anything. But she promised to keep trying.

Steve Tillery, the county Democratic Party’s executive director, said the Republicans are blowing the whole thing out of proportion. He called their insinuations a “broad allegation based on one flimsy circumstance.”

Where else have sheriff’s deputies intervened in the election, he asked?

“It is Halloween. They can look under their bed. There may be a goblin under there,” he said.

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